Platform economy database
Database of initiatives and court cases in the EU
Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 412 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in May 2025 and provides metadata for each entry, such as geographical scope, year, type of initiative, actors involved, sector and companies concerned. Initiatives include legal instruments such as legislative changes or court decisions, as well as voluntary interventions undertaken by different stakeholders to address issues around platform work.
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The database currently contains 412 entries and was last updated in May 2025.
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US labour attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan sealed a major victory on December 9 2015, when the class action lawsuit she had filed on behalf of 8,000 California Uber drivers in 2013 was upgraded by a San Francisco judge to include basically every single Uber driver in California—more than half of the company’s current U.S. workforce. The lawsuit resulted in a $100 million settlement, which included concessions from Uber but did not change the classification of drivers. Liss-Riordan views this as a significant achievement but not the end of her fight.
Drivers claimed they were "highly controlled by management" ; they argued that they were not their own bosses, which disputes the notion of independent contractors running their own businesses. The settlement avoided a court ruling on the classification, but it included reforms to improve drivers' job security, tipping policies, and rights to organise, without changing their official status to employees.
The platform economy is one of those moving targets, which, despite receiving increasing media and policy attention, has proven difficult to regulate. Given the heterogeneity of employment relationships, business models, types of platform work and cross-border issues, this is not surprising.
Technological change is accelerating as the capacity of electronic devices to digitally store, process and communicate information expands. Digitalisation is transforming the EU economy and labour markets: nearly one-third of EU workplaces are categorised as highly digitalised. What are the implications of the digital revolution for employment and work?
The rapid rise of the platform economy has led to a marked transformation of European labour markets, and existing regulatory frameworks and voluntary initiatives have yet to catch up. While platform work offers opportunities for workers and employers and potentially contributes to innovation, economic growth and competitiveness in the EU, it has been criticised from the beginning because of the poor employment and working conditions often experienced by workers.
While 2020 may come to be seen as the year platform work gathered pace and started to go mainstream – thanks in large part to COVID-19 containment measures sparking an increase in food and grocery delivery – 2021 could be the year that regulation of platform work is set in motion.
